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Updated IAA RAS planetary ephemerides-EPM2011 and their use in scientific research

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Abstract

The EPM (Ephemerides of Planets and the Moon) numerical ephemerides were first created in the 1970s in support of Russian space flight missions and since then have been constantly improved at IAA RAS. In the following work, the latest version of the planetary part of the EPM2011 numerical ephemerides is presented. The EPM2011 ephemerides are computed using an updated dynamical model, new values of the parameters, and an extended observation database that contains about 680000 positional measurements of various types obtained from 1913 to 2011. The dynamical model takes into account mutual perturbations of the major planets, the Sun, the Moon, 301 massive asteroids, and 21 of the largest trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), as well as perturbations from the other main-belt asteroids and other TNOs. The EPM ephemerides are computed by numerical integration of the equations of motion of celestial bodies in the parameterized post-Newtonian n-body metric in the BCRS coordinate system for the TDB time scale over a 400-year interval. The ephemerides were oriented to the ICRF system using 213 VLBI observations (taken from 1989 to 2010) of spacecraft near planets with background quasars, the coordinates of which are given in the ICRF system. The accuracy of the constructed ephemerides was verified by comparison with observations and the JPL independent ephemerides DE424.

The EPM ephemerides are used in astronavigation (they form the basis of the Astronomical Yearbook and are planned to be utilized in GLONASS and LUNA-RESURS programs) and various research, including the estimation of the solar oblateness, the parameters of the rotation of Mars, and the total mass of the asteroid main belt and TNOs, as well as the verification of general relativity, the secular variations of the Sun’s mass and the gravitational constant, and the limits on the dark matter density in the Solar System.

The EPM ephemerides, together with the corresponding time differences TT — TDB and the coordinates of seven additional objects (Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, Eris, Haumea, Makemake, and Sedna), are available at ftp://quasar.ipa.nw.ru/incoming/EPM.

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  1. Institute of Applied Astronomy, Russian Academy of Sciences, nab. Kutuzova 10, St. Petersburg, 191187, Russia

    E. V. Pitjeva

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Original Russian Text © E.V. Pitjeva, 2013, published in Astronomicheskii Vestnik, 2013, Vol. 47, No. 5, pp. 419–435.

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Pitjeva, E.V. Updated IAA RAS planetary ephemerides-EPM2011 and their use in scientific research. Sol Syst Res 47, 386–402 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0038094613040059

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